Stacked Deck
by DAORON
Summary: After having partied a little too hard, I wake up in the body of one of my least favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters, Leo. Of course, that means dealing with the Dark Signers, people with way too much plot armor, Yliaster, the heart of the cards and a certain duel spirit that would love to have my head presented to it on a silver platter. Ain't life grand?
1. Chapter 1

Waking up to a hangover was still relatively new to me. I had avoided drinking alcohol for most of my life and even now I only really drink it when it's a mixed drink or a cocktail. Well, about a week before my newest hangover, it only being the third so far in my life, I was contacted by an old classmate of mine. On hindsight, I should have deleted Skype from my PC. It would have prevented my classmate from contacting me and as a result, I wouldn't be in the situation I am currently in. And I barely used that program in the first place. But I am getting just a tad bit ahead of myself.

So I got invited to a little get together. Well, I say little, but our old class consisted of thirty one dudes and dudettes and around twenty of them, myself included, showed up. We had fun, we laughed about the old times, our teachers, our fails, what we were doing now and so on and so forth. But most important of all, we got wasted. Well, I didn't plan to get wasted, not this time anyways, but you know how it is once the alcohol has entered your system. I was even laughing about the fact that I would wake up with a massive headache. I think I at least managed to fall asleep in my sleeping bag. Oh yeah, some of us had sleeping bags with us, because of course we would still need to clean up the place after we were done. And me knowing how reliable (read unreliable) most of my former classmates were when it came to that particular task, I decided to volunteer when I accepted the invitation. In return, I had to spend no money on foods or drinks.

And indeed, the headache I got the next morning was nothing like I've ever felt before. It was like someone was pounding a chisel into my brain with a sledgehammer. I let out a long, drawn-out groan, as my senses slowly, but eventually returned to me, after having a somewhat uncomfortable rest. Not that I was expecting much from sleeping on the ground. Still, I would have loved to sleep more, but that headache made it pretty much impossible. Plus, I needed to use the bathroom.

I didn't even try to avoid falling off from wherever I had fallen asleep. I tried that the first time and somehow managed to twist my arm in a harrowing way around a lamp, which then toppled over and caused a flat-screen TV to fall on my back. It's a long story.

Anyways, I landed on the ground with my left arm first, somewhat dampening my fall. Luckily my teeth didn't hit the ground. I didn't exactly want to visit the dentist again. With a lot of groaning and moaning, I stumbled my way through the room, trying not to trip over my own feet or whatever was lying across the room. By some miracle I managed to get to the bathroom, with only hitting the walls and one table a total of five times. If my brain hadn't been laced with alcohol at the time, I might have remembered that the toilets were actually outside, in a separate building. But as things stood, I didn't even realize I was barefoot. And of course, I didn't just need to use the bathroom to empty my bladder, but my stomach as well. I will spare you the rather gruesome details of that particular incident.

I don't know how much time I spent in there. It could have been anything from five minutes to an hour. Needless to say I was feeling even worse afterwards and decided to lie down for a little bit longer after washing up. I kept my eyes on the floor, as the second I would look up I knew I'd lose my balance and fall over. To further avoid me eating dirt, I kept hugging the next best wall for as long as possible. At one point I stopped, suddenly feeling the need to catch my breath. My world was still spinning and the sledgehammer turning my brain into paste had long since replaced with a jackhammer.

"For fuck's sake..." I mumbled, still keeping my head low. My voice sounded more than a little off today. It was raspy, yet a little high pitched at the same time. It sounded a little alien to be honest, though on hindsight this shouldn't have been a surprise. "That's the last time I partake in a drinking game."

With that false vow I continued my long and strenuous journey to my sleeping back. It certainly didn't help that I vehemently refused to look up for reasons I already mentioned. Well, the entire endeavor was pretty pointless in the first place. I suddenly heard a door opening to my left and I looked up just a tad bit too fast. I just managed to make out two humans, a small and a big one, before my brain and by proxy myself, lost its sense of balance. Can you even say it that way? Well, I don't care. The point is, I hit the ground with my back and the world started spinning again. Actually, it never stopped spinning it just went on faster now.

My vision was slightly blurred and I think my hearing took a little damper as well. I certainly heard something, but couldn't properly focus on it to make out what kind of noise was being made. Instead, I was trying, heavy emphasis on trying, to keep my stomach under control. It didn't work out. I rolled to the side and could only think how it was possible that I had still something left in there to get out.

Gross, I know, but I felt the need to put it into words for some reason. Anyhow, after that little episode was over, I found myself being carried by someone. Now back then it felt like I was floating in mid-air and only after talking with the people afterward did I find out that someone tucked me back into bed. Yes, bed. Not a sleeping bag, but a bed.

Something else I didn't realize back then was that I wasn't at the shack anymore. In fact, I was pretty far away from home and the chances of me ever getting back there are worse than Luna stopping to talk to her duel spirit friends. Once again, I'm getting way ahead of myself.

So, I was placed back into bed, which at the very least provided me with a little comfort, but that was about it. It wasn't like I was falling back asleep, oh no. My brain made the irrational decision that I had to live through my entire hangover. I really wished I could have gotten up and got something to help me with that hangover, like lots and lots of ice water. But as I was now? It felt very similar to when you have a cold and your body is so weak that even lifting your arm hurts.

I was left in that stayed for... I need to ask Luna, she should remember. After all, she had been with me the entire time. You see, when my head finally started to calm somewhat down, I actually managed to get a hold of myself and take a proper look at my surroundings. Unsurprisingly at this point, even for me, was that I was inside a hospital room. That little fact was pretty easy to figure out with the unhooked machines standing next to every bed inside the room. My nose must have been out of commission at the time because I didn't smell any antiseptics.

"Oh man," I groaned out, my voice still being raspy. "Whoa, I must have really overdone it with the karaoke." I chuckled at my own misery. One of the girls brought her Playstation 2 and a copy of Singstar with her. Now, ever since I went to seventh grade, my voice wasn't cut for singing anymore. That didn't mean me and the others didn't enjoy causing a ruckus with our voices, even though my score was almost always at the bottom.

"Wonder how much I got into my system that they had to call an ambulance," I voiced my thoughts. Tilting my head left and right I was looking for a button to call the nurse. No luck on my left side, but on the right I could easily see it. However, I didn't press the button like I planned to, because there was something or rather someone else who had caught my attention. I didn't notice it up until then, but I had no feeling in my right hand. And the reason for that was because someone was laying on it, a girl to be precise. She had green hair, styled into two braids, wore a white-pinkish vest and a red t-shirt with yellow markings underneath. If I had to guess, I would put her in the age range of seven to nine.

Seriously though, green hair?! Or is it blue?! Turquoise maybe?! I know it's an odd thing to focus on, considering a pre-teen girl was hugging my arm, but seriously! That hair color! Granted I have seen plenty of people dying their hair in all kinds of colors, in one case using every color of the rainbow, but still, that hair!

I'm just going to go ahead and say that my liver needs some time to properly clean my brain of everything that is not supposed to be in there. Anyways, after getting over the fact that this girl indeed had one weird, albeit admittedly cool hair color, I started wondering just why there was a girl hugging my arm. A few speculations came to mind, like me actually seeing things due to the alcohol in my system or this potentially being the weird little sister of one of my classmates. Whatever was the case, I decided to shake the girl awake by moving the arm she was currently laying. It was harder than one might expect, given that the girl had been pressuring my blood vessels for who knows how long. But by simply making her head bob a little bit, I managed to wake the girl up. She blinked a couple of times, looking confused.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked no one in particular. I could now see her eye color, it is similar to mine actually: a greenish-brown. The difference was that her eyes were more heavily leaned towards the green, whereas in my case they were a little bit browner. Although, now that she was looking directly at me, I might want to correct my previous statement and say her eyes are more yellow than-

"You're awake!" The girl shouted all of a sudden and leapt at me. Not only did she stop me in my train of thought but she also interrupted the supply convoy transporting oxygen to my integral systems.

"Hrrngh!"

"I was so worried about you! There was so much blood and the doctors didn't know when you would wake up and then all of a sudden you were out of bed and then you fell to the ground and... and..."

And that was the time where she all of a sudden started sobbing into my clothes. Worth of note here, someone, presumably the doctor, had put me into a hospital gown. Now, I don't know what the usual reaction is upon having some random girl worry about you and having her cry her eyes out on how, but I was genuinely stunned. I looked down on her for a few moments, wondering just why the fuck this girl seemingly cared so much about me. Maybe she had somehow mistaken me for someone else, although how that would work, I wasn't sure.

"Er...argh!" For a moment I forgot the girl was still holding me in a chokehold, so talking was a no go for me. I tried to make the girl aware of this little issue by tapping on her shoulders repeatedly. It took me longer than should have been necessary to get her attention, but eventually she looked up and at me with tears still streaming down her eyes. She rubbed her eyes clean with her sleeve and looked at me again. As urgently as I could I pointed at her arm that she had wrapped around my neck. Additionally I scrunched up my face to get the point across that I needed air. It worked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologized and let go me. I hacked and coughed for a little while until I slumped back onto my pillow taking in some deep breaths.

"Death by a hug from a cute girl," I breathed out eventually. "Now that's a horror movie just waiting to be made." I let out a small snicker. Probably not a joke I should make in front of a kid, but I have done worse.

"Don't joke about that!" the girl shrieked angrily, punching my arm. I barely felt it. "I was really worried about you!" she continued and I could see that she meant it. Her eyes were watering again. I was taken by surprise by how emotionally she reacted by my off-handed comment. I mean sure, little kids, especially the little girls, don't take my kind of humor all too well, but still, the last time I saw this kind of reaction was when I and my mom had a pretty serious fight.

"Okay, I'm sorry?" I tried and blinked. "Man, I really gave my voice a beating yesterday," I mumbled. This was the first time I had a hoarse voice and I wondered how long it would take to become normal again. Something I should ask the doctor once I get the chance or at least those were my thoughts.

"Leo?" I felt something small touching my shoulder. It was the girl's hand and she was looking at me with worry.

"Huh?"

"You spaced out..." she spoke in a low tone.

"I did?" I blinked. "Sorry, guess my mainframe is still rebooting," I pointed at my brain, hoping my little metaphor would come across. Judging by how the girl was tilting her head, she didn't get it.

"Forget it," I waved off. "Anyways, gotta get used to that voice for a while I guess, who are you?" I asked as friendly as I could.

That seemingly threw the girl for a loop. At least I got that impression. She looked at me in a way that is hard to interpret, but if I had to guess, I'd say she was at least partially confused.

"Leo? It's me, Luna." She put her hand on her chest. "Don't you recognize me?"

"Luna?" I asked tilting my head. That name rang multiple bells. The very first was the avatar character from a pokémon game, but that was obviously a no go. Next up came a character from a children's TV-show to my mind, but that one was wrong again. I gave the girl a once over from top to bottom and I have to say, I love the t-shirt she had been wearing.

"Er... nope. Sorry, I think you're in the room of the wrong dude. Besides, I'm fairly sure my name isn't Leo." Although having a name like that would be a way better alternative to my actual name. Max is just such a generic and boring name. That's not to mention people like comparing me to the Max from the Goofy cartoons.

"Huh? What are you talking about Leo?! Is that your idea of a joke?" The girl, Luna, pointed an accusatory finger at me.

In response, I gave the girl a deadpan stare. "Trust me, kiddo, you don't want to hear my jokes. Not to mention you parents would probably have me thrown into jail if I just tell you one. Actually almost happened once, no joke." Okay, I was exaggerating. These particular parents just gave me an earful and one of the two happened to be a police officer.

"Besides, do I even remotely look like your brother?" After I said that, I actually got to thinking and figured I might look remotely like her brother Leo. I mean, how else was it possible for her to mistake me for him?

"What are you talking about, Leo?! This isn't funny!"

Okay, as cute as her voice was, the last thing I wanted to deal with was an angry kid. From experience alone, I knew just how annoying those could be.

"Alright," I rolled my eyes and got up.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked as I got off the bed. And man was that bed high. I actually had to crouch a little to compensate for the impact. And when I stretched my legs, I had to support myself on the bed for a second before I could let go.

"Damn, my head..." I groaned but shook the pain off.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked, still sitting on the bed.

"Simple," I turned towards her. "We'll go to the mirror in the bathroom and see if I really am your brother."

"Huh?"

I ignored her questioning gaze and just made my way to the bathroom. I was still a little shaky on my legs, but it was nowhere near as bad as earlier. I could hear the girl behind me landing on her shoes and following me into the bathroom. For some reason or other, the mirror in this bathroom hung pretty high, so high in fact that I had to support myself on the sink to get myself at the same level the mirror was attached to the wall. At precisely that time Luna appeared next to me.

"See, I-" I stopped before I could even bring out three syllables because what was staring back at me from that mirror was definitely not my face. "I... I..." Yeah, I was at a loss for words.

"What?" the girl gave me an unimpressed look, which I pointedly ignored. I could definitely see now why this girl thought I was her brother. I mean we had the same hair, almost the same face and it looks like I've shrunk a good chunk since the day before. I took it, considerably well, given the circumstances.

"WHAT THE MOTHERFUCKING HELL IN THE FATHERFUCKING BITCHLOAD OF BITCHINESS OF THE FUCKING SHIT THAT CAME OUT OF SATAN'S ANUS, WHILE FUCKING A PROSTITUTE FROM PERU IS GOING ON?!"

And that's when the doctor stormed in.


	2. Chapter 2

I should know better than to scream my head off when I'm generally feeling like shit already. But I think one can forgive me this time for forgetting this minor fact, as the circumstances for my outrage are reasonably justified. But apparently, my body disagreed with me on that regard. Somehow me shouting my lungs out activated my gag reflexes and now I was standing in front of the coughing and hacking to my heart's content. The thing was, my stomach was as empty as it could get, so all that really came out was hot air. It gave the girl, Luna and the doctor one hell of a fright, let me tell you. I don't know what they were saying, my mind was occupied with other things at the time, but given that their voices had a soothing tone and Luna was slowly rubbing my back, I guess they were concerned. I know, not exactly hard of a conclusion to get to.

Once I was able to take some deep breaths without feeling the need to throw up air again (my body is weird sometimes), I drank some water from the sink, before turning my attention to the other occupants of the room once again. Or at least that was the plan, but then another body part of mine, which felt like 80% of it just died the other day, reminded me as to why I was in the hospital in the first.

"Oooohhh, someone make the world stop spinning," I moaned. Well, the world wasn't spinning, but my brain sure as hell felt like it was turning inside my skull. I felt both the doctor, a relatively pretty woman with short brown hair and Luna touching each of my shoulders.

"Come, Leo, let's get you back to bed," the doctor said in a soft tone.

"Call room service," I slurred as the two turned me around. "One Tequila Sunrise. With a cocktail umbrella if possible." I couldn't help but snicker at the stuff I just said. Either I still had some alcohol remaining in my bloodstream, or I had received some brain damage last night.

Luna gave me a funny look as if she was wondering what I just said, while the doctor rolled her eyes, mumbling something about children and bad influences. After that, I was back inside the hospital bed in a matter of seconds. The doctor even tugged me in all nice and cozy, though it definitely didn't help with my migraine in the slightest.

"Luna dear, could you please wait outside for a little bit?" the doctor asked her.

"Do I have to?" Luna asked with a pout. "I want to stay with my brother."

"Don't worry. It will only take a few minutes. When I am done, you can come back to your brother again. Okay?"

"Mhm." Nodding towards the doctor, Luna gave me one last look, before she reluctantly exited the room. I may have been busy dealing with my headache, but I was coherent enough that both of them for some reason still referred to me as Luna's brother. I would have asked then and there why they thought I was her brother, but then I remembered what I saw in the mirror. Combine that with the already considerate headache and there was no way I could make rhyme or reason out of all of this.

"Now then." And of course, the good doctor wouldn't give me the time to collect my thoughts. She walked up to my bed, allowing me to look up to her. She gave me that smile that all doctors specializing in treating children give said, children. I might have been inclined to smile back, but all I could do right now was to grimace.

"How are you feeling, Leo? Do you feel dizzy, maybe a headache?"

"Uhhhg…" I wanted to give an answer but only managed to groan right now. I needed a second attempt to say anything properly. "My brain feels like it's been put into a shaker and Arnold Schwarzenegger is the one doing the shaking."

The woman looked at me with a side glance, before shrugging and speaking up again. "Don't worry. I can give you something that will make you feel better."

"Much appreciated," I muttered.

"Mhm." The doctor then proceeded to take out a thermometer and stuck it into my ear. After only a couple of seconds, the thing let out a beep sound and the woman took it out again, reading the results. "No fever," she noted.

"Before I can give you any medicine, I need to ask you some questions. After all, I don't want to give you the wrong medicine accidentally."

"Sounds…ow… reasonable. Does it take long? My brain feels like it's liquefying itself." Funny, five minutes ago I thought my headache was getting better, but now it was worse than when I first woke up.

"I am surprised you know what that word means," the doctor stated. "Anyways, I will make it quick. Were you recently ill by any chance?"

"Got a cold last week," I replied honestly. "Just recovered from it."

"I see." The woman took out a cylinder-like object and pressed a button. To my complete and utter shock, a hologram appeared out of it and I could distinctly read letters on it, only they were reversed. The woman typed something on it, before returning her attention to me.

"Okay, next… are you alright?"

She was probably wondering why I was staring agape at the piece of technology she was holding. This holographic projector, as I dubbed it inside my mind at the time, must be as typical to her as a telephone was to me. Well, the thing she was holding was out of a sci-fi movie and working, so excuse me for being awed there for a little bit. The woman needed to shake me gently to snap me out of it.

"Leo?"

"Ah, what?" I shook my head, which was a mistake as it only intensified the pain I was feeling.

"You were spacing out?"

"I…owie…yeah. What's that thing you're holding?" I asked.

"This?" she held the projector up. "It's a simple PDA. Why do you ask?"

"PDA?" I repeated. "Where have I heard this before? Ow, owowowow, screw you too, brain!"

While I was busy berating my own processor, the doctor stiffened ever so slightly. She continued asking questions for the next two minutes, which were simple things. I just went along with it, because at this point I wanted to get it over with and get aspirin or something. Questions included if my family was suffering from any gene defects or sicknesses (none that I was aware of), if I was allergic to something (dust mites, hazelnut pollen), if I took medicine at the moment (stopped on Monday taking medication for my previous cold), if I got sick regularly and if I get tired quickly. That last one confused me, but I just replied with a no.

"Alright, thank you, Leo. I will bring you some painkillers against your headache now and let your sister in."

"Hey, before you go," I reached out with my arm as if I was physically trying to stop her from going away. The woman turned around and warmly looked at me.

"Yes? Do you want anything else?"

Or hell yes, I wanted a lot of things, but most importantly I wanted answers. I never thought concentrating could physically hurt you, but I endured the pain for there were two things that needed to be answered.

"First of, why are you calling me Leo? My name's Max. And second, who the fuck is the girl outside? I have a sister, but she's twelve years older than me and goes by the name Olga." I practically fired those sentences out of my mouth. I am not shitting you when I say I needed to relax my brain muscle after that. I just closed my eyes, not even bothering to hear the answers I initially wanted. At this point, I would have very much preferred it if I lost consciousness. Since that didn't happen, I decided to bite into my pillow. I usually reserve that course of action from when I have a fever, and I can't fall asleep. It was as ineffective as the other times I did that the taste of the pillow distracted me at least somewhat. Makes me wonder what kind of washing powder they use to make a pillow taste this good.

In my state, I didn't notice that the doctor remained a little longer inside the room. What I just said had probably thrown her in for a loop, but at the time I was unaware of that fact. I mean, as evident as the signs had been, I simply wasn't in the state of mind to count two and two together. I did hear her exiting the room, however, not realizing that she didn't give me the answers I wanted.

She returned relatively quickly anyways and had a pill for me to swallow. Oh, and yes, Luna did not come into my room immediately. Why I didn't know. Not that I cared anyways, I was way more interested in the pill. You know, I just realized how much I have been wining about everything that's happened to me, as I write everything into this little journal here. Wonder what Luna will think when she reads all of this.

Anyways, I have a small memory gap after this. Worth noting down here is that modern medicine is effective, but comes with its fair share of side effects. A short memory loss is one of the possible symptoms from the pill the doctor gave me. It's not as dangerous as it might sound. Losing one hour worth of memories or in my case, half an hour is nothing compared to what this stuff can do. I mean the pain had been reduced to nothing more than a little throbbing in the back of my skull. In time this would go away as well.

Now that my brain processing power had been restored by a good margin I could actually take the time, sit up and think about things. Like for example the thing that had me have a freak out way earlier, my reflection in the mirror. I dope slapped myself, rationalizing what I had seen as just something my mind made up from its alcohol induced state. Heck from all I knew the past hour could have been an alcohol-induced dream or hallucination or whatever. Heck, it would certainly explain why the girl wasn't in my room. She had never been there. Only the doctor had been there and said woman was probably wondering what kind of bullshit came out of my mouth in my drunken or half-drunken state.

Take note people: this is the thought process you have when you're desperately trying to rationalize everything to you. That same thought process is applied when people are desperate or try to get over a tragedy. Just thought I should share that little tidbit. It might help you with accepting your situation a little quicker.

To get back on track, in order to fully convince me that everything had not been real up until this point, with the sole exception being the doctor's visit, I decided to go to the bathroom for a third time today. By the way, I was pointedly trying not to look down at my own body, so that I couldn't see my actual height and could deny reality just a few seconds longer. I was pretty much ready to break the mirror in front of me because it broke my sense of reality for a second time that day. Not sure if it was the drugs or the fact that I had already seen this face, but I somehow didn't freak out like last time. It didn't stop my jaw from hitting the floor, though. Green eyes, even greener hair, hell, I'm pretty sure there's some baby fat on my cheeks.

I looked down at my arms and noted that they didn't look any different when it came to their length. However, my brain took the rare occasion to make the leap of logic and tell me why my arms didn't appear any shorter. It was all about perspective. I was way shorter than before I had woken up in this hospital, as such my perspective of the world around me had changed. For example, an average adult no longer appeared to me as a normal sized human, but as a big human. A hamburger was no longer a snack, but a meal. And since my hands shrunk with me, they still appeared normal to me.

I was tempted to bash my head against the sink at this moment, repeatedly. How I managed to resist that particular temptation, don't ask me. Maybe some of my self-preservation instincts are still intact. The Crimson Dragon alone knows how many I lost after I started enjoying drinking.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked my new reflection, my voice not having recovered as much as my head. For all I knew at the time, this would be my new voice period. "This has got to be a dream." I knew it wasn't a dream. But hey, nobody ever says accepting those things is easy.

"Leo?! Where are you?!"

It does help to have others around, though. That had been the doctor calling "my name." Unbeknownst to me, she had entered the room, while I was still in the bathroom. I silently cursed, as there were still so many things I needed to cope with. But nope, some higher being (I think it was the Wicked Gods), decided that things were going way too slow. The doctor frantically opened the bathroom door and sighed in relief, when she saw me standing in front of the sink.

"Oh, there you are."

I looked up at the woman, one part of my brain trying to guess her height by projecting an image of my actual body right next to her, the other part being like: "Holy hell, she's huge!" I didn't say anything out loud.

"Umm, are you finished?"

I tilted my head, wondering for a second what she meant until I remembered that I was in the freaking bathroom. "One sec," I told her and let the water flow into the sink. I waited a couple of seconds until it was ice-cold, then proceeded to splash it on my face.

"Good evening!" I exclaimed, as my brain got a little system shock (so to speak) from the sudden drop in temperature in my facial region. Taking some of the paper towels, I rubbed my face dry, before facing the doctor again. "Let's get this shit show over with," I mumbled just loud enough for me to hear. I think the doctor might have given me a look, but I wasn't paying attention.

Inside the hospital room, we found the other green haired being standing right beside my bed. However, even I could see that something was bothering her, mostly because it was blatantly obvious. Her eyes were red, presumably from crying, she had her hands clutched over her chest and fingers entangled as if she was praying and finally, she was giving me this pleading look that kids give you when you just said their puppy died and they want you to say it was a joke. Or a mistake? I don't know. I never had any pets.

"Why do I feel like I am on a funeral?" I asked into the room. It might have been out of tact, given the girl's mood, but come on, I deserve to be more than just a little snarky after everything that happened today. And it wasn't even lunchtime.

The girl whimpered for some reason and looked away. I frowned and looked up to the woman, my face saying I wanted to have an explanation. The doctor for her part took in a small breath, before speaking.

"Leo, this might sound like an odd question, but do you recognize this girl?" she asked, motioning with her hand over to Luna. It was indeed an odd question, but I decided to humor the woman and gave the girl in the room a quick once over. I merely added white shorts and red shoes to her current apparel into my mind.

"I guess you don't want me to say she's the girl from earlier," I replied with my arms crossed. The girl flinched under my words, making me wonder what was up with her.

"No. What I mean is, do you remember meeting her before?"

"Should I?" was my immediate response. "And why the fuck do you keep calling me Leo?" I asked in return. I pointedly ignored the girl gasping at my choice of words (I assumed it was my choice of words that threw her off) in favor of glaring up at the doctor, because my patience was running thin at this point.

"Right, I see," she sighed in disappointment and pity. "We'll have to call an expert for this," she mumbled, before looking directly at me again. "Look, Leo, everything here might be confusing or possibly terrifying to you right now-"

"Try downright disturbing," I interjected. "Not sure how I am keeping my cool right now, but… but… waaaaaaiiiiiit a fucking second." I held out my left hand in front of the woman, before she could say anything and took a direct look at Luna. At this point in time there were already some tears running down her face and at any other time it might have gotten an emotional response out of me, but I was way too focused on something else. You see, as I was about to say something inappropriate, something clicked inside my brain and made me reevaluate the girl in front of me. She was still cute as a button and I wanted to cuddle her, which made me realize just how desperately I needed a pet, but there was something else about her. Something familiar.

Luna took a step backward, probably disturbed at the face I was making, as I looked all over her.

"Luna… Luna… "I mumbled to myself. I took another look at those pigtails she wore and wondered how she would look if she wore them in a simple ponytail when finally everything came together. Even I am amazed at how long it took me to figure this one out.

"You're…." And that's when my brain decided to freeze up. I'm pretty sure if I had a screen attached to my head, a windows error message would have appeared. Hey, I was conjured 1994. PCs back then were prone to have these things popping up.

"You're…" I tried again.

"…Leo? What's wrong?" the girl asked.

"Are you alright?" the doctor added, putting a hand on my shoulder. I turned my gaze towards her, pointed with my finger at my chest and asked in the dumbest voice any of you can imagine.

"My name is… Leo, correct?"

The woman blinked. "Y-yes? Damn, I knew I should have called for help." I assumed I wasn't supposed to hear the last part. Not that I particularly cared, as my attention was once again on the girl who looked exceedingly like me. For the record, it looked like she was almost as confused as I was about the entire situation.

"Your name is Luna," I stated in the same dumb voice. "And we're… twins?"

"Y-yes," Luna stuttered after a second. And thus so many things came crashing down on me: Yu-Gi-OH! 5Ds, Duel Monsters, Holograms, Duel Spirits, the Crimson Dragon, Signers, Dark Signers, Yliaster, Duel Runners, Speed Spells, I could fill an entire page. I took a few tentative steps towards Luna. She and the doctor watched me with curiosity as well as hope, anxiety and anticipation. When I was only two steps away, I gave Luna one final once-over, before turning towards the doctor and saying.

"Doc, I think I want to rectify my previous statement."

* * *

"So, you remember Luna being your sister," the doctor asked me.

"Yes," I hissed out, getting sick of this endless questioning.

"But you don't remember your sister as a person."

"Correct."

You might notice a little gap here. Well, you see, to sum the past two motherfucking hours up, I was basically diagnosed with amnesia. Not right away mind you, they still called in a specialist who asked me a bunch of question and I was pretty sure he'd say I faked my amnesia because technically I had no amnesia. After two hours of talking to the guy, I still can't tell if he's incompetent or just an idiot. And honestly? I didn't care. I was annoyed, I was hungry and the face of the doctor in front of me looked extremely punchable right about now. So excuse me if I don't want to go through two hours of questioning again mentally.

"Hmm..." The man looked at the hologram in front of him, frowning. "This is a most curious case."

No, I've been lying through my teeth. How did this guy not notice that?

"Then again, the circumstances of your arrival are most curious as well."

Oh yeah, the reason Leo was in the hospital in the first place? He just hit the ground out of the blue and Luna called an ambulance.

"Something similar had happened to Luna when she was young," the female doctor in the room commented, going over her own hologram. "When she was three years old, she fell into a coma for a month, after which she woke up. She also suffered from memory loss afterward, albeit it wasn't quite on this level."

They did know I was still in the room with that, didn't they? Not that I can complain much, any information about my "family" I could get would only help me in the future.

"Do you think it is a genetic cause?"

"Let's not jump to any conclusions, my dear," the man stated. I had to repress myself from reacting since he was the one who made the assumption about my diagnosis.

"At any rate, Leo," the doctor man spoke to me again "I'm afraid you will have to stay inside the hospital for a few more days. We simply want to make sure you won't fall over again."

I didn't even try to hide my sigh of relief, knowing that we were done with the questions. At the same time, my stomach (or is it Leo's stomach?) caused a minor ruckus, telling everyone in the room that it was way past feeding time. Both doctors in the room let out a chuckle at my minor predicament.

"Do you want me to bring you to the cafeteria?" the female doctor asked.

"Can I get changed first?" I asked, pointing at the stack of clothes that had been placed on the neighbor's bed.

"But of course. I will wait outside." Before she and the other doctor went away, however, she decided to put a "reassuring" hand on my shoulder. "And don't worry. Most cases of amnesia are temporary, meaning most people regain their memories after a few days at most."

And with that, I was left alone. Now mind you, I didn't immediately go ahead and change into my or rather Leo's clothes, instead I visited the bathroom one more time to look at "myself" in the mirror. The best way to describe seeing not your face in the mirror is to put it into one word: creepy. I slowly went over my face with my left hand, watching in fascination (creeped out fascination) as my hand followed my motions as if it were my own hand.

"Hello, Leo," I greeted the mirror. "Not sure what is going on, but... I guess you're stuck with me now."

* * *

I gotta admit, Leo's clothes are damn comfortable. But, I didn't even bother trying to put on the hairband. For one, I never used one, for two, do I look like a girl to you? Oh wait, written word, it doesn't work that way. You get the gist, though.

Anyways, I found Luna outside in the hospital hallway talking to the doctor. In fact, I managed to arrive just in time to hear the doctor finishing explaining Luna the situation. Or at least what they understood under the situation being.

"I know it's rough, but try to be patient. Maybe you can show him some things that belong to him, his deck for example. Try to jock his memory, but at the same time don't overwhelm him. Okay?"

"I understand," Luna replied, all of a sudden being in a very good mood. This was in stark contrast to what I had seen else of her so far: either worried or almost crying. I didn't know what the rest of their conversation had been about and I didn't come to ask, because as soon as I came into "my sister's" view, she shouted: "Leo!" and came running straight to me. I almost toppled over, when she practically threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my body. Funnily enough, the last motion actually prevented me from hitting the ground.

"Uh... hi..." I mumbled back, holding my arms in a slightly awkward position, as I wasn't sure whether to hug the girl back or not. Luckily Luna let go of me soon enough and observed me in a more subdued matter.

"How do you feel?"

"Uh... weird, I guess?" I tried. "Confused, disoriented, scared..." I admitted before my stomach made some loud rumbling noises. "Aaaaand hungry..." I finished lamely.

Luna couldn't suppress a giggle but appeared not all cheered up. "Doctor Sato," she nodded at the female doctor standing a little away from us, "told me... she told me what is going on." Luna put a hand on my shoulder. "They told me... you remember me?" she asked a little fearfully.

I bit my lip, thinking about my next answer. "Yeah... how do I describe it?" I asked myself scratching the back of my head. "It's like, I know for a fact that you're my sister, but... oh man, how do you put this into words? Words? Why are you failing me right now? I know we never get along, but you're contractually committed to help me out!" I exclaimed in an overdramatic fashion, before blinking.

"Okay, where did that come from? Did they perform a surgery on my brain when I wasn't looking?"

Luna giggled at my little antics, although I was quite serious about the surgery part. It was then that my stomach repeated its complaints to the world around.

"You're not helping, you know that?" I complained down.

Luna giggled even more and wrapped her hands around my arm. "Come on, big brother. Let's get you something to eat before you start acting even weirder."

"Sounds like a plan," I acknowledged.

* * *

As she promised, Doctor Sato brought us to the hospital cafeteria. She couldn't stay with us though, as she was called elsewhere. After she was gone, Luna and I got ourselves something to eat. I simply went with a cheese sandwich and a can of soda, while she got herself the lunch menu, which consisted of spaghetti and pudding as a desert. Also, she paid for everything with her bank card. That last bit kind of surprised me, as personally, I didn't get one of those until I turned seventeen.

"Is that all?" Luna asked as we sat down on a lone table. "I thought you were hungry. Is that really enough?"

"I just threw up this morning-"

"EW!"

I paused for a second. "Anyway, I'll eat more if I feel like it after this. But for now, I want to avoid another... incident."

With that being said, I started eating. Luna did the same a second later and from there on we would talk and eat.

"Man, this really hits the spot..." I moaned. Although at the same time it hurt a little. Then again, I was eating on an empty stomach, so a bit of pain is bound to be expected.

"Say, Leo," Luna spoke up between bites. "I know this might be a bit early bringing this up, but the doctor said you might be... confused. As in, you don't remember some things wrong."

"Or made some things up," I added. I may not be a doctor, but I know for a fact that "misremembering" stuff is not a typical amnesia symptom. "Like earlier today, when I thought my name is Max for some reason." I hoped I faked the chuckle good enough.

"Is there anything else you're misremembering?" my sort of twin asked.

"Eh..." I stopped my mouth from taking another bite out of my sandwich and tilted my head. "It's kind of hard to tell. Aside from my naming confusion, the only thing that comes to mind is... I somehow believe you're supposed to be twelve years older than me." My actual sister is twelve years older than me, for reference sake.

Luna stopped shoving another load of noodles into her mouth, in favor of staring at me for a couple of seconds. She chortled a little and then continued eating her food. "Maybe if I were your older sister, you would finally start listening to me and clean up your room."

"Can't really tell, don't remember," I shrugged and continued munching on.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

I looked up, wondering at Luna's timid behavior all of a sudden. It took me a second to realize that her previous sentence could have been offensive to anyone who has actual amnesia.

"Hey, hey, it's alright," I tried to calm her down. "Honestly, this whole amnesia and the misremembering thing hasn't really hit me as of yet. I mean, I had a little freak-out this morning, but I'm surprised how calm I am considering everything."

My words didn't exactly cheer her up, so I tried another approach. "By the way, I found this in my pocket, when I was changing. I think it's yours." Of course, the hairband I took out wasn't hers, but if I was going with the amnesia story, for the time being, I better play my part.

Luna looked at the band that I put on the table and recognized it immediately. "This isn't mine, it's yours," she pointed out.

"Mine?" I feigned ignorance. I took a couple of hair strands into my hand and formed them into a makeshift ponytail, before letting them go again. "I guess my hair is pretty long. Actually, it's constantly tickling my neck."

Luna giggled and took the hairband into her hand. She then walked around the table and proceeded to put my hair into the familiar ponytail style that I had seen on the show. She gave me a small grin when she was done.

"Huh..." I touched my newly made ponytail with my hand. "This is surprisingly comfortable. I'm not secretly a girl and don't remember it, am I?" I asked with the most serious face I could muster. This finally cracked up Luna, as she had to hold her stomach, she was laughing that hard.

"Oh my god, Leo!" She suppressed the last of her snickers and smiled at me. "What's next? Make-up?"

"Depends," I shrugged. "How much are you willing to pay?"

Luna almost cracked up again after this. However, she managed to keep herself under control and took her seat once again. For a time, the two of us just sat there, enjoying our meals. It wasn't until I was done with my sandwich and halfway done with my soda that I decided to speak up again.

"Hey Luna, this might be a weird question, but could you tell me a little about our day to day life?"

My sister, this will take some serious getting used to, eyed me curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Just, what we usually do all day. The doctors said it might help trigger my memories or something."

Luna's eyes widened just a little bit. "Of course! How could I have forgotten this already?"

"Stress?" I offered. "I know my brain is not working as it should be. Don't get this the wrong way, but I am somehow feeling the urge to take you into my arms and cuddle you like an oversized cat."

If Luna hadn't been a kid, she probably would have taken it the wrong way. And for those of you considering this the wrong way, I may have an incest fetish, but Lolita is as taboo for me as is the invention of diet coke.

"Aww, that's sweet of you, big brother. Okay, where should I start?"

And thus began my gathering of information about the original owner of the body I was currently inhabiting.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, these are our parents," I stated in a neutral tone as I looked at a holographic projection that showed a green haired woman and a blue haired man, standing on a balcony and waving towards what I could only presume a camera. The phone Luna was using was pretty awesome by the way. From the outside, it looked just like any old I-phone. The difference obviously was that it could project its screen to practically anywhere. Or at least a little distance away. I don't really know. I have to test this stuff out yet.

"I can certainly see where our hair comes from." Although from what I remember from my biology lessons, it usually doesn't work that way. Then again, my situation was anything but usual at this point.

Luna giggled at my statement and made the picture disappear. "So, do you remember our parents?" my current sister asked. And honestly? I was pretty surprised Luna still thought about showing me a picture of them. I mean they're only mentioned in the anime one or two times and never actually shown. Has there even been concept art for them?

"Sorry, Luna," I shook my head. "It's like I'm seeing them for the first time." I immediately regretted my words, when I saw Luna's face fall quicker than my French grades.

"Hey, hey! You know, I think I can feel something-"

"It's okay," she interrupted me in a soft tone before I could finish my lie. Additionally, she gave me that kind smile that made me feel l just put a puppy into a shredder. "It'll all come back in time. The doctors said so."

And thanks for making me feel guilty, little "sister" of mine. I considered telling her the truth back then and there but shook the thought off. It was way too early to be thinking about stuff like this. Rashly made decisions would only hurt me in the long run.

"I know!" she suddenly exclaimed and snapped her fingers. I looked at her curiously, as she rummaged through her pockets. I watched her curiously as she bit her lip, struggling with whatever she wanted to take out. A couple of seconds later, she finally managed it. I shouldn't have been surprised upon seeing her placing two decks on the table, but I still was for a couple of moments. She shoved the one on my right towards me, grinning eagerly.

"Yu-Gi-Oh cards?" I asked, taking the deck she had offered me into my hand. I noticed my mistake a second too late, and by then Luna practically exploded with laughter. I could feel my face heating up a little and turned slightly away in a huff.

"That's…" she took a breath "that's actually not a bad idea." She snickered. "Naming the game after the King of Games."

"Yeah, yeah, my bad." I rolled my eyes. "It's Duel Monsters. I remember that much."

Luna giggled at my deadpan tone, trying to calm herself down. "But hey! You remember the game name. Do you also remember the rules?"

I know the future rules, but they would hardly do me any good in the 5ds timeline. "I do," I nodded. It's kind of hard to forget such a simple rule system. The only thing that troubled me after years of not playing was spell speed and luckily I got that sorted out months ago. As it just so happened, two of my colleagues at work still owned their old decks and as a result, we ended up playing almost every day during break time. Although, unless I use my Link Monsters, we pretty much ignored those rules.

"Great, then let's have a game."

"Ah, uh… hang on a sec," I interjected before Luna could start shuffling her deck. "Can I have a quick look at my deck, first? Get myself familiarized with it and all."

Luna nodded, understanding. "Of course. And don't worry big bro. Take all the time you need," she said in a caring tone.

"Thanks," I nodded towards her and took a look at the card on the bottom of the deck. I scowled immediately, as I read the name of the card: Morphtronic Datatron. And here we have one of the two reasons why I dislike Leo so much: his deck is absolute shit. I don't know how good the Morphtronic Archetype is in the competitive scene, but on a personal level, I'd say that Morphtronics are absolute garbage. Their effects depend on their position, which in of itself wasn't bad. It were the effects that I found to be useless. Not only the effects but also the amount of attack and defense points these cards possess. I will take normal monsters any day of the week over Morphtronics, thank you very much.

"Let's see, sacrifice one and deal 600 or defend and deal 300," I summarized the card effect. 1200 Atk and 600 Def points. Unless this card had synergy with a card that brought the sacrificed monster back, it was practically useless in my opinion. I own at least five cards from when the game first came out that deal better and more consistent burn damage than this one.

Morphtronic Radion, now here's one of the better cards in my opinion. It gives the other Morphtronic Monsters a significant boost in either attack or defense power. Sadly there were very few monsters in here that I would call decent and even fewer once I would call good. Well, to give Leo some credit, it looked like he tried to alleviate the weaknesses of his monsters with his spell cards. There were quite a few equip spell cards in here, some of them actually worked quite well with weak monsters like the Morphtronics. Maybe this deck wasn't so bad as I made it out to be, I thought to myself. I swear I wouldn't have bothered dueling Luna if I had noticed the flaws of this deck earlier. And they were very obvious, even for a casual player like me.

The last card I obviously got to see was Leo's ace, the Power Tool Dragon. I was both surprised and disappointed to see that this was the only Synchro Monster in this deck. I had been sure he owned at least one or two weaker Synchros in here, as either a stepping stone or an alternative means to win.

Making a mental note to go card shopping as soon as Luna gave me my own bank card, I set Power Tool Dragon aside in the Extra Deck Zone and started shuffling my or rather Leo's deck.

"Okay, ready when you are."

"Great," Luna smiled and started shuffling her deck. I raised an eyebrow as I saw that she didn't set any cards aside for her Extra Deck. Upon questioning, she just told me.

"I don't have any Synchro Monsters."

"You don't?"

"No," she shook her head.

That was kind of confusing. She always had Synchros in the Tag Force game series and I'm not including Ancient Fairy Dragon. Then again, the decks in Tag Force were vastly different from the anime decks.

As we both put our decks down and drew our first five cards, Luna stated: "You can have the first turn, Leo. And don't worry. I will go easy on you."

I had a feeling that wouldn't make much of a difference with my deck. "Thanks," I replied.

 **DUEL!**

 **Leo (Max) 4000 LP**

 **Luna 4000 LP**

My opening hand wasn't so bad actually. Three monsters and two spells were something I could work with that. The decision now was which of these cards I should play first. Naturally, none of the spells, as both were equip cards. The Morphtronic monsters weren't particularly strong, but depending on which position I put them in, their effects could be either useful or detrimental.

"I think I am going to summon-"

"Leo." Luna interrupted me, putting a hand on my arm. "You forgot to draw your sixth card." And indeed I did. The new rule system was so implemented into me it was just force of habit at this point not to draw during the very first turn.

"Whoops, sorry," I blushed and drew my sixth card. "I'm kinda nervous, to be honest," I admitted.

"It's okay. Just take it easy."

"Alright. In case I forget another rule just stop me." I told her this in case I didn't remember the rules as well as I thought I did.

"Don't worry. I'll watch out for you. You wanted to summon a monster?"

"Ah, right. I summon Morphtronic Celfon in attack mode," I said and put the card in front of me.

Morphtronic Celfon (ATK/100 DEF/100) LVL 1

Summoning a weak monster like this in attack mode was risky. I had no traps in my hand to protect it, so I had to hope its effect would work in my favor.

"Eh..." I looked down at the card. "Do you have a die with you by any chance?"

"Oh." Luna looked down at the card in front of me. "Just a second." She took out her phone again and fumbled with it a little bit until she found the app (do they still call those things app?) she was looking for. Placing the phone on the table, there was now a die on display above a green background.

"There we go," Luna smiled and I snorted.

"Alrighty." I gave the little screen a tap, which causes the die to fly all over the place. After a couple of jumps, the die spun on one of its corners, until it slammed to the ground and showed a two.

"Okay, I am supposed to turn around the number of cards on the top of my deck to the number I just rolled. If any of them is a level 4 or lower Morphtronic Monster, I can special summon one of them. Then I shuffle the remaining cards back into my deck." It was probably needless for me to tell Luna this effect, but heck. I don't know the abilities of the Morpthronics inside out. I need a little brain support for the time being. I quickly drew the first two cards of the top of my deck and let them fall in the middle of the field. They were two spell cards.

"Aw, too bad," Luna gave me an apologetic smile.

"Well, at least I won't draw them in my next two turns," I replied and put them on the top of my deck, before shuffling it. "Didn't really need those two at the moment. Okay, what else can I do?"

As mentioned, I had no trap cards in my hand. And with a 100 ATK monster on the field, my life points were bound to take a good hit. However, there's always this little thing called bluffing.

"Guess I play this face down and end my turn." I played the spell Power Pickaxe face down, hoping Luna would either decide not to attack or waste a removal card on this one.

"Okay, my turn," Luna drew a card and checked her hand out. She hummed a little tune I didn't recognize to herself as the girl went with her finger over every card she held in her hand until she finally decided on one.

"I summon Kuribon," she announced and played the card onto the field.

Kuribon (ATK/300 DEF/200) LVL 1

I smiled and somehow grimaced at the same time, upon seeing the third generation of Kuribo. I knew that all Kuribos somehow negated battle damaged, but this one was unknown to me.

"When you attack my Kuribon, I can negate the damage, give you life points to the damage I would have normally taken and take Kuribon back into my hand," Luna explained as I tried to read the card effect upside down.

"That so? I'd probably prefer the regular Kuribo. Unless you can combine it with that one nurse monster that turns life points your opponent would gain into effect damage." Nurse Fontain is evil. EVIL! Do you know how many times I lost to her in Tag Force?!

"There is a card like that out there?" Luna asked astounded.

"Eh... yeah," I nodded. "Two, if I remember correctly, though there might be more. From what I recall there's the monster, though I only remember "Nurse" being in the name and then there's a permanent trap. Both have the same effect, turning healing effects into damage. Combine that with the Gift Card trap and you have instant 3000 damage on your opponent."

Luna looked at me with astonishment for a couple of seconds, before smiling brightly. "Leo, that's genius! I think I actually have the Gift Card trap back at home. Now I only need one of the two cards you mentioned."

"Er... I wouldn't exactly call myself a genius..." I was a bit embarrassed at the compliment, considering this was practically the tactic AI Luna used in the fourth Tag Force game. "By the way, isn't it still your turn?"

"Oh right, the duel." Luna giggled. "I attack your Morphtronic Celfon with my Kuribon."

Well, it could have been worse. 200 points of damage were just a slap on the wrist by comparison what other monsters could have done. I dutifully put my monster into the graveyard.

 **Leo (Max) 3800 LP**

 **Luna 4000 LP**

"I set one card face down and end my turn."

"Okay, here we go." I drew another card and it turned out to be another spell card. That made two monsters and three spells in my hand, plus the one spell I set face down earlier. If I just played a monster and attacked, Luna would negate the attack, leaving her undamaged. Luckily the spell I drew could potentially help me tipping the odds in my favor.

"First off, I activate Junk Box. I bring Celfon back to the field, but it's gonna be destroyed during the End Phase." I placed my previously destroyed monster back onto the field. "Alright. Let's hope the dice gods are with me this time."

They weren't. I rolled a one and revealed Megamorph from the top of my deck. "What's it with the spells today?" I asked out loud while shuffling my deck. Luna snickered at my little predicament.

"I guess you're having bad luck today," she commented.

"Yeah, yeah. I play Morphtronic Staplen and attack your Kuribon with that."

Morphtronic Staplen (ATK/1400 DEF/1000) LVL 4

"I activate Kuribon's effect," Luna countered. "Now you gain 1400 Life Points, but your attack is canceled."

 **Leo (Max) 5200 LP**

 **Luna 4000 LP**

"Not sure if that was worth it, but it's your move." I placed Celfon back into the graveyard, due to Junk Box' effect.

Luna drew a card and examined her hand. "I play Sunlight Unicorn."

Sunlight Unicorn (ATK/1800 DEF/1000) LV 4

"Sunlight Unicorn allows me to reveal the top card of my deck and if it is an equip spell, I can take it into my hand," Luna revealed the top card of her deck and I grimaced. She got an equip spell and its name was Horn of the Unicorn.

"Lucky me," Luna smiled and placed the card on the field. "I equip Horn of the Unicorn to Sunlight Unicorn."

Sunlight Unicorn (ATK/2500 DEF/1700) LV 4

"This is going to hurt," I remarked.

"I attack Staplen with my Unicorn," Luna announced. I grumbled as I placed the card into my graveyard.

 **Leo (Max) 4100 LP**

 **Luna 4000 LP**

"Luckily for me, your Unicorn loses 300 attack points, because of Staplen."

Sunlight Unicorn (ATK/2200 DEF/1700) LV 4

"Yup! It's your turn, big brother."

I silently drew a card and almost groaned. I drew the trap Urgent Tuning, pretty useless, considering I have not even a tuner in my hand. In fact, I had only one monster left and once that was gone, Luna could freely assault me.

"I place this card face down and this monster in face-down defense position. That ends my turn."

"Hmm..." Luna gained a thoughtful expression, as she drew another card. "I play Ebon Magician Curran."

Ebon Magician Curran (ATK/1200 DEF/0) LV 2

"I also equip her with Trial of the Princess. Now she gains an additional 800 attack points."

Ebon Magician Curran (ATK/2000 DEF/0) LV 2

"This ain't good..." I muttered.

"Curran attacks your face down monster," Luna announced.

"Boom," I said while flipping over my face down monster:

Morphtronic Magnen Bar (ATK/100 DEF/100) LV 1

"Now Sunlight Unicorn attacks you directly."

 **Leo (Max) 1900 LP**

 **Luna 4000 LP**

I looked at the two cards in my hand, thinking they might have been useful if I set them down as additional bluffs.

"I end my turn," Luna announced, looking at me worriedly. "You're really having bad luck right now."

"Yeah." I flipped over Power Tool Dragon in my extra deck and looked at summoning conditions. "Would be nice to have him out right now. Whatever, it's a card game. Luck is always a part of a card game. Let's see if I have better luck with this draw. And if not, we can always go another round."

If this had been Tag Force, this would have been my destiny draw. Though, I definitely wouldn't have chosen the card I drew as a Destiny Card. It wasn't that bad of a card. It actually gave me the chance to potentionally turn this duel around, but for that to happen I needed even more luck.

"Okay, I activate Magical Mallet. I place as many cards as I want on my deck, shuffle it and then draw the same amount of cards."

I put the Mallet into my graveyard and was ready to shuffle when Luna suddenly stopped me.

"Wait a second, Leo." I raised an eyebrow as I saw her taking my spell card into her hand and reading its effect. "Leo, you're supposed to shuffle this card into your deck too."

"Say wut?" I took the card into my hand and read the effect once again. "Huh, I always thought this card goes to the grave." I shook my head. "Reading is apparently useful."

Luna smiled at my comment and I was about ready to shuffle my deck, when I stopped myself because I was reminded of something. My colleague owned Magical Mallet and he used it in both his Exodia Deck and his Blackwing Deck. Additionally, I remember him placing the card always in the grave after activation. Did we both make a mistake? Just to be sure, I turned the card around and read the effect once again. There's when something else FINALLY hit me. Seriously, how did I not notice this earlier? I mean, have you ever been reading Arabic texts and misinterpreted it for English?

"Wait a minute of a momentary second. This card is written in Japanese."

"Uh... yeah? Did you expect it to be written in French?" Luna asked with a teasing smile.

I looked at her with the most neutral expression I could muster. "Luna, this might sound like the dumbest thing you have ever heard in your entire life, but haven't we been speaking English the entire time?"

The look Luna gave me after my statement was confirmation enough for me to realize that there was more wrong with my brain than the usual defects I had.


	4. Chapter 4

**Leo (Max) 1900 LP**

 **Luna 4000**

You know, for someone who just figured out that they were speaking an entirely different language, they would have something better to do than wonder if they could start a job as an interpreter. But at this point? Well, let's summarize it like that.

"I am not sure whether to go to the doctor or pump myself so full of soda that my blood vessels get jammed by sugar."

Luna looked at me concerned, having placed her hand on the table. "Should we stop? Maybe call a doctor?"

"Honestly?" I put my hand on my head, feeling an entirely new kind of headache coming up. "I'd rather just put this one on the backburner for now."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah. I mean, for all we know, this is just part of the whole me being confused shtick. Like I at first thought I was supposed to have an older sister. Or somehow I am still convinced I am 24 years old."

My sister (nope, still weird, even just writing it down) nodded uneasily and took her hand back. "Okay. Just be sure to tell me if you're not feeling well."

"Don't worry. Will do. Okay so... where were we?"

Sunlight Unicorn (ATK/2200 DEF/1700) LV 4

Ebon Magician Curran (ATK/2000 DEF/0) LV 2

Luna still had her one face down, and two equip spells, while I was stuck with my bluff face down. And of course, Magical Mallet was still in effect. My two hand cards and Magical Mallet wandered on top of my deck, and then I shuffled it.

"Okay, three new cards. They better be good once."

The three cards I drew were two spells and one monster. The first spell was called Rocket Pilder, and funnily enough, I used this card in Duel Links, when I created a new account. Forgot the name and password of the old one, if you must know. This card allowed a Monster to survive an attack, as long as the equipped one was attacking and drained the opponents monster of attack points equal to the points of the equipped monster. Nice card for beginner decks.

The second card was Scapegoat. I would be pretty surprised to meet anyone who doesn't know what that card does.

The final card was Morphtronic Magnen (ATK/800 DEF/800). In attack position, this card could only attack the monster with the highest attack points. In defense position, my opponent could just attack this card.

"Looks like I'm going to survive for another turn. I activate Scapegoat and get four tokens that way."

Scapegoat (ATK/0 DEF/0) LV 1

Scapegoat (ATK/0 DEF/0) LV 1

Scapegoat (ATK/0 DEF/0) LV 1

Scapegoat (ATK/0 DEF/0) LV 1

"Uh... how many cards are in my graveyard?" I mumbled. "Celfon, Junk Box, Magnen and Bar... yeah, this'll do." I placed the four cards I mentioned in face-down defense position in front of me.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked.

"I figured I'd use these cards as my tokens, to make things easier," I explain. I always did that when I summoned a token one way or the other. So far I had no scenario where the card from my graveyard got targeted by an effect, while I used it as a token.

"Good idea," Luna nodded.

"Alright, so, I can't summon a monster anymore, but I can still set one in face-down defense position." I placed my Magnen on the field to my utmost left side, leaving me only with an, at this point, useless equip spell in my hand.

"That ends my turn."

"Okay." Luna drew a card. "My Ebon Magician does 200 points of damage to you now."

I completely forgot about that effect.

 **Leo (Max) 1700 LP**

 **Luna 4000**

"And now I summon White Magician Pikeru," Luna announced before placing the card right next to Curran.

White Magician Pikeru (ATK/1200 DEF/0) LV 2

"Don't those two hate each other or something?" I asked pointing at Pikeru and Curran respectively with a wry smile. "At least, I kind of remember them having a trap called sibling rivalry or something?"

"It's a spell," Luna corrected me with a smile. "And don't worry about those two. They get along." She flinched. "Most of the time, anyway."

I wondered for a second why she was looking at her cards in slight anger and embarrassment when I remembered the unique thing about Luna.

"That's right!" I slapped my forehead, getting Luna's attention. "You can talk to Duel Spirits! How in the name of the fuckening did I forget that?" I wondered with a pout.

"Leo! Language!" Luna chided.

"Whoops. Sorry." I had to watch my tongue in the future. Spoiler: I won't even bother.

"But," her mood suddenly improved. "You remember I can talk to duel spirits? You actually remember it?" she asked almost giddily.

"Uh... yeah?" I nodded. "Makes me kind of jealous. I wish I could talk to duel spirits. I mean," I made a gesture with my hands "I'm currently imagining Blue Eyes White Dragon sitting in a bar with the Dark Magician, talking about the good old times, when they were the top Duel Monsters."

Luna gaffed at the mental image for a second, before shrieking with laughter. I am not sure if the joke I made was that funny, which reminded me I had yet to make any dirty jokes, but she continued laughing for a good minute, before catching herself. People actually started looking in our direction. Oh yeah, there were people here. I don't really have anything to say about them, as they were less relevant than background characters at this point.

"Oh... oh dear," Luna continued to snicker, desperately trying to catch her breath. "I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself."

"I noticed," I replied dryly.

"Oh... I'm good. I'm good." Luna continued to smile, as she made her move. "I attack three of your tokens with Pikeru, Curran and Sunlight Unicorn."

I placed three of the cards I used as tokens back into the graveyard. "You know? I think Ebon Magician Curry would have been a better name for your card." I pointed at the one showing the girl in dark clothing. Once again Luna laughed, though this time she caught herself after a couple of seconds.

"Don't be like that, Leo. You shouldn't anger the duel spirits," she scolded me lightly.

"Hey, not my fault if they can't take a joke. Still, though, I really wish I could talk to them. It would be really awesome to be able to talk to a dragon or heck, get tutoring from... the Mathematician for starters?" I asked, causing Luna to blink.

"You know, I might just try this out," my sister spoke thoughtfully.

"Invite me, when you do that," I said and put my hand on my deck. "Are you done?"

"Mhm," she nodded. "It's your turn."

"Here goes nothing," I said while drawing the next card. It turned out to be a tuner monster and it was at level 3. I turned Power Tool Dragon around and counted the stars on the card. Next, I did was looking at my facedown monster, checking the level. I still had one token left on the field. I smiled, when I saw that I could actually turn this duel around.

"I summon Morphtronic Scopen in attack mode," I announced and slammed the card down.

Morphtronic Scopen (ATK/800 DEF/1400) LV3

None of the monster's effects were beneficial to me at this point. Well, thinking back, I could have summoned the monster in face-up defense position. It's actually a possible move in this world. However, I was far away from adapting to the rules of this world. As such, I didn't realize I could have actually used its defense effect. But then again, all it would have really done was save me a token.

"Next I flip up Morphtronic Magnen."

Morphtronic Magnen (ATK/800 DEF/800) LV 3

"But Leo, Power Tool Dragon is level 7. Morphtronic Scopen needs to be in defense mode in order for you to synchro summon."

I couldn't suppress the grin on my face, causing Luna to frown.

"Math isn't your best subject, is it?" I asked teasingly, causing Luna to pout.

"Leo, Magnen is level 3 and Scopen is level 3. In total that makes level 6," she stated as a matter of fact. I had to hold back not to laugh then and there.

"I tune my level 3 Scopen, with my level 3 Magnen AND-" I shouted there before Luna could interrupt me "my level 1 Scapegoat."

The girl gasped in surprise, as I placed the synchro materials into the graveyard. "No way! I didn't know you can use tokens like that," she said in amazement, causing me to raise an eyebrow. I didn't know what was so amazing about this move. Surprising? Maybe, but definitely not amazing or shocking or anything drastic like that.

"I couldn't use them as tribute fodder, because the spell card said so," I clarified. "But I can use them to synchro summon the Power Tool Dragon."

Power Tool Dragon (ATK/2300 DEF/2500) LV 7

"Now for the kicker, I activate Power Tool Dragon's Effect," I took my deck into my hands as I spoke. "I take out three equip cards and then you chose one of them randomly. That one goes into my hand and the other two get shuffled into my deck."

It took me some time to decide on the cards because I was specifically looking for those that would increase my dragon's attack. That's when I noticed just how many of those cards could only be used on Morphtronics.

I ended up taking out Break Draw, Power Tool C&D and Megamorph. I showed those three cards to Luna, so she could confirm that they were equip spells, after which I flipped them upside down. I shuffled them back and forth for a bit. When I stopped, I gestured for Luna to chose one.

"Hmm," she frowned. "I'll let you have... this one," she pointed at the card to my right. I revealed it and her face fell when it turned out to be Megamorph.

"Thanks!" I smiled and shuffled the other two cards into my deck. "I think I am going to attach Megamorph to my dragon."

Power Tool Dragon (ATK/4600 DEF/2500) LV 7

"And because it's been pretty useless as a bluff trap, I reveal Power Pickaxe and attach it to my dragon as well."

Power Pickaxe was actually pretty useless at this stage, seeing as Luna had absolutely nothing inside her graveyard. I just used it to give my dragon some additional protection.

"Alright, time for the counterattack. Power Tool Dragon attacks...hmm, your Unicorn might be the strongest monster on the field, but the last thing I need is losing any more life points. Sorry Curran, but I'm afraid you have a scheduled meeting with the grim reaper."

"I don't think so," Luna said in a sing-song voice, sending shivers down my spine.

"Say what?" I asked.

She gave me this evil, evil smile that would haunt me for days to come. "I activate my trap card: Synchro Ejection!" she exclaimed in an overdramatic fashion. I didn't recognize this card, but something told me, I wouldn't like it.

"Do I want to know what this card does?" I asked carefully, causing Luna to giggle.

"Simple! I choose one Synchro Monster you control and remove it from the game," she explained with a smile.

"Say what thingy?!" I exclaimed and looked at the trap card. Specifically, I checked the wording of the card. You wouldn't know how many mistakes me and my colleagues made with card effects, just because we didn't correctly read the effects.

"Great," I drawled and gave Luna the card back. "And since it doesn't destroy my dragon, I can't activate its effect to save it. So long, Power Tool Dragon! I barely knew you!" I exclaimed in an overdramatic fashion myself, before picking up the card and dropping it above my graveyard. The spells naturally landed inside the graveyard.

"Hehe! I put this card inside my deck after you beat me so often with your Power Tool Dragon," Luna said, not appearing to be the least ashamed.

"What were the chances of you drawing that card?" I groaned out. I looked at the final card in my hand: another equip spell, as mentioned. That meant I could either try to bluff again or give up right now. Luckily, I knew various methods of deceiving.

"Let's hope this works." I placed my final card face down and kept my finger at the ready.

"Your turn," I said while keeping my finger on my card. I wanted to appear like I was ready to spring a trap. It had worked in the past, although it had failed just as often. But I had also learned that kids were way more susceptible to bluffs. Seriously, the amount of wins I managed to get out of elementary children back when "Yu-Gi-Oh!" first came out is ridiculous.

"My turn. Draw." Luna looked at my hand, holding my seeming trap card at the ready. Only after that did she take a look at her hand. It didn't take her long to decide on a card.

"White Magician Pikeru gives me 200 life points, while Ebon Magician Curran makes you lose 200."

 **Leo (Max) 1500 LP**

 **Luna 4200**

"You have a horrible poker face, you know that?" she said. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon." She revealed the quick spell of my doom.

"I'd rather say my poker face is too good," I countered, revealing my useless equip spell. Luna was surprised for the merest second before she smiled triumphantly.

"Guess I win, big brother. I attack you with Sunlight Unicorn."

 **Leo (Max) 0 LP**

 **Luna 4200**

 **Winner: Luna by dropping her opponent's Life Points to zero.**

"I didn't even get a scratch on you," I complained, as Luna and I gathered our cards. "Didn't exactly help that I was drawing into nothing, except on my last turn. But of course, you had the perfect counter ready since your first turn. Oh man, I need a drink or I'm just gonna talk my head off."

Luna giggled at my little complaining session. "Should I buy you something?" she asked.

"It would be nice, thanks. If you don't mind, I'm gonna hit up the restroom real quick."

"Alright!"

We both got up and went our separate ways. The restrooms were located just outside the cafeteria, so that's where I went.

* * *

After dealing with my, let's call it "business," I once again stopped in front of one of the mirrors and took a good look at my new face, again. There were way more details to make out than in the anime. I could see individual eyebrows, my skin was not all one color, but varied in shade, depending on where the light currently fell on. My eyes weren't anime sized. And the color on my shirt was already a little bit washed out, meaning it had been worn and washed a couple of times.

"Oh man, woman and everything in between," I muttered. For shits and giggles, I sprayed some water onto my face, just to see if it would "wake me up" from this "dream." It didn't work. I was still there, in the bathroom and Luna would probably worry pretty soon, if I stayed in there for any longer than a minute or two.

With a sigh, I walked out of the room, but wasn't really paying attention and ended up bumping into some random girl. We both staggered back a little bit.

"Whoops. Sorry, wasn't looking."

The girl shook her head and smiled at me. "It's alright. I wasn't looking either," she said with a smile. The girl looked to be about my age and was really pretty. Long, blonde hair, like really long, pink eyes (of all eye colors) and wore a black pullover, pink-reddish trousers and yellow shoes.

"Oh, I know you!" she exclaimed, pointing at me.

"You do?" I asked, blinking, mentally summoning every anime side-character into my head.

"Uh huh! I saw you duel with that girl over there!" She pointed with her thumb towards the cafeteria.

"Oh, you did?" I asked, mentally throwing the list away, seeing as I didn't need it. "Yeah, Luna kinda thrashed me back there. I drew nothing, except for the last turn and that's when she sprung her trap."

"Oh, her name is Luna? Is she like your sister or something? You two look so alike."

"Twin sister," I confirmed with a nod.

"Ah, makes sense!" The girl nodded enthusiastically. "But say, you're not very good at the game, are you?"

I frowned a little at her statement. "As I said, I just bad luck. But, I'm definitely gonna have a look at my deck later. Or do you want to have a duel now?"

"Nope, sorry!" she shook her head violently, causing her hair to flow all around her. A few stray strands actually hit me. "I gotta go to my grandmother! She's expecting me. See ya!" she shouted and ran past me. I looked after her for a bit, scratching my head.

"Are all girls in this world this friendly?" I wondered, before going back to Luna.

* * *

Something I didn't realize at the time was that that little encounter was anything but coincidental. In fact, it would be one of many meetings I would have in the future. While I was thanking Luna for the soda and asking for a rematch, the little girl actually wasn't visiting her grandmother, like she claimed she was. Nope, she was meeting up with someone on the rooftop of the hospital building, someone I would meet later in my new life.

"And?" the man in the red suit asked, expecting the girl to understand the question without any further explanation.

"This'll be easy," the girl said with a feral grin. "I don't see what our lady is so worried about," she continued putting her arms behind her head. "The duel spirits already don't like him, meaning they won't help him."

"While beneficial, it doesn't guarantee an easy victory," the man replied. "Our lady has her reasons to be worried about this particular individual. Even if he seems like another mortal to us, the fact that our lady sees him as such a big threat is more than reason enough for us to worry."

"Don't worry, don't worry, it's not like I will go easy on him," the girl rolled her eyes. "I wish I could hang out with the girl, though. She looks like she'd be plenty of fun to have around."

"Hmph," the man shook his head. "You can "hang out" with her as much as you like after we have finished our mission. And if you want that to happen, I suggest you prepare your deck and defeat him."

"Pff," the girl blew a raspberry and took a deck out of her pocket. "I have been ready, ever since our lady sent us on this mission. Don't worry, Breaker. Me and my sisters will capture him. Why don't you enjoy the sights, in the meantime?"


End file.
